„Accio changed all that,” McClary said in a phone interview from his home office. „Now I can find the best suppliers and products in a fraction of the time and negotiate with them directly.”
Beyond the convenience for small business owners, the AI search engine is part of Alibaba’s broader push to expand its reach beyond China.
Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said in a November earnings call that the company plans to invest more in AI, cloud computing and logistics to support international growth.
China’s AI companies increasingly see the global market as a growth opportunity, said Huang of Raffles Family Office. She noted that the firm is keeping an eye on companies that can scale and offer competitive AI solutions abroad.
But China’s AI sector still faces challenges in winning over foreign users, particularly amid geopolitical tensions and concerns about data privacy.
For example, ByteDance’s TikTok has faced backlash in some countries over data privacy concerns. The company has said it stores user data outside of China and has made efforts to distance itself from its Chinese roots.
As China’s AI capabilities grow, the country’s companies will likely continue to face scrutiny over how their technology is used — and whether it aligns with global norms.